About

Freedom Road: Re-Imagined

Freedom Road Re-imagined is an incredible immersive live music performance that combines music, photography and filmed footage to call attention to the resilience, determination and pride of Black British Communities.

Freedom Road Re-imagined presents an intergenerational perspective on protest through the lens of esteemed photographers Vanley Burke, Charlie Phillips alongside the young photographer Shaïny Vilo. The show's visuals draw you into times (both past and present) when the collective and individual voice became weaponised as a force for change.

Central to the show is the exhilarating music. Music associated with the U.S and U.K Civil Rights Movement. Music that sustained, nurtured and educated - music that became and remains some of the most important of the 20th Century. The music is a soundscape of the innovation in Black music covering early field recordings, soul, jazz, afrofuturism and neo-soul.

Intercut with the music and stunning visuals is the recorded voice of Taariq Forder. Taariq brings his lived experience, enriching the telling of this intergenerational conflict.

If it is at all possible to inject an energy of positivity amid turbulence, and movement for change, Freedom Road Re-imagined does this brilliantly. The artists from cross-cultural and multi-generational backgrounds bring incredible musicianship and storytelling and present a show that is moving, defiant and joyful all at once.

Freedom Road Re-imagined Line-Up:

Sabina Desir – Vocalist

Jessica Lauren – Keyboards/MD

Tamar Osborn – Woodwinds

Winston Clifford – Drums

Ivan Hussey – Cello

Jason Simpson – Bass

Taariq Forder - Additional Voice/Actor (film)

Visuals:

Charlie Phillips – Photography

Vanley Burke – Photography

Shaïny Vilo – Photography

Richard Birch – Photography

London Borough of Lambeth Archives Department

Nathan Jones (Soopanatural Projections) - Film/Projections

The Music:

Musical Arrangements by Jessica Lauren

I’ve Been ‘Buked - Traditional

Tryin’ Times - Donny Hathaway

How Long Blues - Leroy Carr

Police and Thieves - Junior Murvin

Trouble So Hard - Vera Hall

Peace Go With You Brother - Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson

This Bitter Earth - Dinah Washington

Young Gifted and Black - Nina Simone

People Make The World Go Round - The Stylistics

Four Women (Instrumental) - Nina Simone

Mississippi Goddamn - Nina Simone

Why? The King of Love is Dead - Nina Simone

A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke

Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield